公开(公告)号：US12053323B2

公开(公告)日：2024-08-06

申请号：US16401870

申请日：2019-05-02

Applicant: BFLY Operations, Inc.

Inventor： Keith G. Fife ,  Jianwei Liu ,  Jungwook Yang ,  Joseph Lutsky

IPC: A61B8/12 ,  B06B1/02 ,  B06B1/06 ,  G01N29/24 ,  H10N30/20

CPC classification number: A61B8/12 ,  B06B1/0207 ,  B06B1/0292 ,  B06B1/0622 ,  G01N29/2406 ,  H10N30/204

Abstract: Micromachined ultrasonic transducers having pressure ports are described. The micromachined ultrasonic transducers may comprise flexible membranes configured to vibrate over a cavity. The cavity may be sealed, in some instances by the membrane itself. A pressure port may provide access to the cavity, and thus control of the cavity pressure. In some embodiments, an ultrasound device including an array of micromachined ultrasonic transducers is provided, with pressure ports for at least some of the ultrasonic transducers. The pressure ports may be used to control pressure across the array.

公开(公告)号：US20240122073A1

公开(公告)日：2024-04-11

申请号：US18329703

申请日：2023-06-06

Applicant: BFLY Operations, Inc

Inventor： Jonathan M. Rothberg ,  Susan A. Alie ,  Jaime Scott Zahorian ,  Paul Francis Cristman ,  Keith G. Fife

IPC: H10N30/05 ,  B06B1/02 ,  B06B1/06 ,  H05K3/36 ,  H10N30/87

CPC classification number: H10N30/05 ,  B06B1/0292 ,  B06B1/06 ,  H05K3/361 ,  H10N30/87 ,  H05K2201/10977 ,  H05K2203/0726

Abstract: An ultrasound-on-a-chip device has an ultrasonic transducer substrate with plurality of transducer cells, and an electrical substrate. For each transducer cell, one or more conductive bond connections are disposed between the ultrasonic transducer substrate and the electrical substrate. Examples of electrical substrates include CMOS chips, integrated circuits including analog circuits, interposers and printed circuit boards.

公开(公告)号：US20240044846A1

公开(公告)日：2024-02-08

申请号：US18382368

申请日：2023-10-20

Applicant: BFLY OPERATIONS, INC.

Inventor： Jonathan M. Rothberg ,  Susan A. Alie ,  Keith G. Fife ,  Nevada J. Sanchez ,  Tyler S. Ralston

IPC: G01N29/24 ,  B81C1/00 ,  B06B1/02 ,  A61B8/00 ,  B81B7/00

CPC classification number: G01N29/2406 ,  B81C1/00238 ,  B06B1/0292 ,  A61B8/4483 ,  B81B7/007 ,  B81C1/00301 ,  H01L2924/0002 ,  H01L2924/146 ,  H01L2924/1461 ,  H01L2224/4813 ,  B81C2203/0792 ,  B81C2201/019 ,  B81B2201/0271 ,  B81C2203/036

Abstract: An ultrasound device includes: ultrasonic transducer cavities; a membrane comprising a silicon layer that seals the ultrasonic transducer cavities; electrode regions configured to control vibration of the membrane; and a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) substrate including integrated circuitry that is electrically coupled to the electrode regions. The ultrasonic transducer cavities are disposed between the membrane and the integrated circuitry along a vertical direction of the ultrasound device.

公开(公告)号：US20230149977A1

公开(公告)日：2023-05-18

申请号：US18099456

申请日：2023-01-20

Applicant: BFLY OPERATIONS, INC.

Inventor： Lingyun Miao ,  Jianwei Liu ,  Keith G. Fife

IPC: B06B1/02 ,  B81B3/00 ,  B81C1/00

CPC classification number: B06B1/0292 ,  B81B3/0021 ,  B81C1/00158 ,  B81B2201/0271 ,  B81B2203/0127 ,  B81C2203/03 ,  B81B2203/04 ,  B81C2201/0125 ,  B81C2201/013 ,  B81C2201/0176 ,  B81B2203/0315

Abstract: An ultrasonic transducer device includes a patterned film stack disposed on first regions of a substrate, the patterned film stack including a metal electrode layer and a bottom cavity layer formed on the metal electrode layer. The ultrasonic transducer device further includes a planarized insulation layer disposed on second regions of the substrate layer, a cavity formed in a membrane support layer and a CMP stop layer, the CMP stop layer including a top layer of the patterned film stack and the membrane support layer formed over the patterned film stack and the planarized insulation layer. The ultrasonic transducer device also includes a membrane bonded to the membrane support layer. The CMP stop layer underlies portions of the membrane support layer but not the cavity.

公开(公告)号：US11590532B2

公开(公告)日：2023-02-28

申请号：US16296476

申请日：2019-03-08

Applicant: BFLY OPERATIONS, INC.

Inventor： Keith G. Fife ,  Jianwei Liu

IPC: B06B1/00 ,  B06B1/02

Abstract: Aspects of the technology described herein relate to ultrasound transducer devices including capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) and methods for forming CMUTs in ultrasound transducer devices. Some embodiments include forming a cavity of a CMUT by forming a first layer of insulating material on a first substrate, forming a second layer of insulating material on the first layer of insulating material, and then etching a cavity in the second insulating material. A second substrate may be bonded to the first substrate to seal the cavity. The first layer of insulating material may include, for example, aluminum oxide. The first substrate may include integrated circuitry. Some embodiments include forming through-silicon vias (TSVs) in the first substrate prior to forming the first and second insulating layers (TSV-Middle process) or subsequent to bonding the first and second substrates (TSV-Last process).

公开(公告)号：US11559827B2

公开(公告)日：2023-01-24

申请号：US17192700

申请日：2021-03-04

Applicant: BFLY Operations, Inc.

Inventor： Susan A. Alie ,  Keith G. Fife ,  Joseph Lutsky ,  David Grosjean

IPC: B06B1/02 ,  B81C1/00 ,  G01N29/24 ,  B81B3/00 ,  G01N29/22

Abstract: An ultrasonic transducer includes a membrane, a bottom electrode, and a plurality of cavities disposed between the membrane and the bottom electrode, each of the plurality of cavities corresponding to an individual transducer cell. Portions of the bottom electrode corresponding to each individual transducer cell are electrically isolated from one another. Each portion of the bottom electrode corresponds to each individual transducer that cell further includes a first bottom electrode portion and a second bottom electrode portion, the first and second bottom electrode portions electrically isolated from one another.

公开(公告)号：US11540805B2

公开(公告)日：2023-01-03

申请号：US17874180

申请日：2022-07-26

Applicant: BFLY Operations, Inc.

Inventor： Jonathan M. Rothberg ,  Susan A. Alie ,  Nevada J. Sanchez ,  Tyler S. Ralston ,  Christopher Thomas McNulty ,  Jaime Scott Zahorian ,  Paul Francis Cristman ,  Matthew de Jonge ,  Keith G. Fife

IPC: A61B8/00 ,  B06B1/02 ,  A61B8/08 ,  A61B8/12 ,  B06B1/06

Abstract: A system comprising a multi-modal ultrasound probe configured to operate in a plurality of operating modes associated with a respective plurality of configuration profiles; and a computing device coupled to the handheld multi-modal ultrasound probe and configured to, in response to receiving input indicating an operating mode selected by a user, cause the multi-modal ultrasound probe to operate in the selected operating mode.

公开(公告)号：US11388524B2

公开(公告)日：2022-07-12

申请号：US17114411

申请日：2020-12-07

Applicant: BFLY Operations, Inc.

Inventor： Joseph Lutsky ,  Nevada J. Sanchez ,  Kailiang Chen ,  Keith G. Fife ,  Tyler S. Ralston

IPC: H04R17/00 ,  B06B1/02 ,  B06B1/06

Abstract: Aspects of the technology described herein relate to ultrasound circuits that employ a differential ultrasonic transducer element, such as a differential micromachined ultrasonic transducer (MUT) element. The differential ultrasonic transducer element may be coupled to an integrated circuit that is configured to operate the differential ultrasonic transducer element in one or more modes of operation, such as a differential receive mode, a differential transmit mode, a single-ended receive mode, and a single-ended transmit mode.

公开(公告)号：US20220171041A1

公开(公告)日：2022-06-02

申请号：US17548370

申请日：2021-12-10

Applicant: BFLY Operations, Inc.

Inventor： Kailiang Chen ,  Keith G. Fife ,  Tyler S. Ralston ,  Nevada J. Sanchez ,  Andrew J. Casper

IPC: G01S7/527 ,  G01S7/52

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are described for implementing a coding scheme on ultrasound signals received by a plurality of ultrasonic transducers. The coding, and subsequent decoding, may allow for multiple ultrasonic transducers to be operated in a receive mode simultaneously while still differentiating the contribution of the individual ultrasonic transducers. Improved signal characteristics may result, including improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

公开(公告)号：US20220133274A1

公开(公告)日：2022-05-05

申请号：US17578370

申请日：2022-01-18

Applicant: BFLY Operations, Inc.

Inventor： Jonathan M. Rothberg ,  Keith G. Fife ,  Tyler S. Ralston ,  Gregory L. Charvat ,  Nevada J. Sanchez

IPC: A61B8/00 ,  A61B8/14 ,  A61N7/00 ,  G01S15/02 ,  G01S15/89 ,  H04R1/00 ,  B81C1/00 ,  G01S7/52 ,  B06B1/02 ,  A61N7/02

Abstract: To implement a single-chip ultrasonic imaging solution, on-chip signal processing may be employed in the receive signal path to reduce data bandwidth and a high-speed serial data module may be used to move data for all received channels off-chip as digital data stream. The digitization of received signals on-chip allows advanced digital signal processing to be performed on-chip, and thus permits the full integration of an entire ultrasonic imaging system on a single semiconductor substrate. Various novel waveform generation techniques, transducer configuration and biasing methodologies, etc., are likewise disclosed. HIFU methods may additionally or alternatively be employed as a component of the “ultrasound-on-a-chip” solution disclosed herein.